This special issue of the re-launched Screenworks, the online journal of screen media practice research, invites all practice researchers with an interest in radicalism and the moving image to submit works that explore the multiple interpretations of ‘radicalism’.

Derived from radix, the Latin for root, the word ‘radical’ is has long been used to describe the politics and aesthetics of a wide variety of moving image practices, from experimental film and video work to newsreel, documentary and fiction film. Politically, its most enduring context has been that of the left and various strands of socialism, anarchism and environmentalism, but radicalism can refer equally to the politics of the far right or, as has been the case in more recent years, Islamic extremism. Whatever the context, in the mainstream media ‘radicalism’ is almost always used as a pejorative. Yet profound interventions or fundamental departures from unsatisfactory norms can be positive, creating the spaces for disruption and change that can, as John Holloway (2010) puts it, “crack” the status quo, enable new ideas to flourish, and transform the utopian into the pragmatic.

This special issue is dedicated to screen-based practice-research work that engages with the theme of radicalism from any of these competing and sometime contradictory meanings, either formally and/or in terms of subject-matter. The deadline for submissions isJanuary 31for publication in May 2017. Selected work will also be eligible for entry into a special practice-as-research strand at Bristol Radical Film Festival 2017.

Submissions must comprise two parts: 1) the work itself, with a link to its Vimeo page or URL provided; and 2) a Supporting Research Statement, both included in the Screenworks Submission Form. To contact the Screenworks editorial team with any queries please email admin@screenworks.org.uk.